‘Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #1’ Review

Written by Cavan Scott | Art by Blair Shedd | Published by Titan Comics | Format: Paperback, 32pp

Leaving World War II behind, The Ninth Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack discover that Time Lord technology, lost in the wake of the Time War, is being sold on the intergalactic black market! Now the threat of a NEW temporal war brews on the horizon. Can the Doctor stop history repeating itself?

It’s been a long time since I have even thought about the Ninth Doctor. I briefly remember a time long past with Bad Wolves and Northern accents but that has since been lost to Tennants and Smiths and Capaldis. Luckily when I started reading this comic though, it all came flooding back in a crazy haze. This comic is set just after the blitz episode in the Doctor Who time line, that’s the ‘Are you my Mummy?’ episode to any fans out there (shudder), and it gives you a whole new adventure with The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack.

What I like about Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #1 is that the writers and artists have managed to make everything feel shiny and new again. It heralds back to when Doctor Who was fresh (well, the reboot was) on the scene and we has less of an understanding of what to expect around every corner. Not only is this captured in the art, the likeness of the characters being quite near to perfect, but also in the mannerisms of the characters. There is even a reference to ‘bringing a banana’ which definitely brought a smile to my face.

But how does it stand up in terms of story? Well, it is a pretty standard adventure. Doctor and companions go to a place and find everything is not as it seems. Isn’t that the general idea for Doctor Who stories? This one happens to be set on a space ship and contains your standard amount of shooting and running and everything you would expect from a Doctor Who adventure. If you are new to Doctor Who, you are looking at a science fiction, action, adventure kind of tale. This one is actually surprisingly fast paced and set amongst a raging space battle.

If there is one thing I have noticed, it is that compared to the other Doctor Who comics I have reviewed there is a lot less ‘techno-babble’ from the Doctor in this one. He is more of a ‘charge in, get things done and complain about things’ kind of guy and actually I found that quite refreshing. Techno-babble has its place, but if you can get the general idea without going into too much detail that works too.

A fun new tale from the Ninth Doctor which brings back everything that was great and exciting from the original series in a whole new setting.

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #1 (of 5) is released on April 1st.